Messengers will be required from 1 January 2018 to stop the transmission of messages “in the cases and manner” that will establish the government of Russia. This follows from the amendments to the second reading of the draft law concerning the regulation of the work of messengers in Russia.
According to “Izvestia”, the original document has introduced the obligation for users of instant messengers in Russia to undergo a mandatory identification by using phone number, otherwise access to services will be blocked. Such identification should be made on the basis of the agreement between a cellular operator and a messenger.
However, the second reading of the document is adjusted so that this requirement left only to the foreign messengers. Russian services will be able to carry out this procedure independently “by determining the subscriber number”. They will also be required to store user data, and only on Russian servers.
During the day a messenger will need on demand of the authorized body to block user caught sending inappropriate content (for example, extremist or terrorist wing, child pornography or information about drugs, etc.).
The document also prescribes the obligation of the messenger to ensure the confidentiality of communications and the possibility of failure users from receiving messages from other users. In addition, if necessary, the host service shall provide the ability to send messages from the authorities.
The second reading of the document there was another charge for messengers — “to prevent the transmission of messages… in the cases and manner defined by the government of the Russian Federation”. The Committee noted that this may affect, for example, spam-mailing.
For violation of these requirements will face a lock in court, the text of the bill.
Member of the Committee on information policy and communications Vadim Denikin (liberal democratic party) had abstained from voting at the Committee meeting. According to him, the draft “not sufficiently transparent” and he has questions about the technology of the project.
